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Sebastian Vettel, Infiniti Carve Up the New Sochi Autodrom

With the Russian Grand Prix a little more than a month away, Sebastian Vettel headed to Sochi to test out the all-new Sochi Autodrom Grand Prix circuit. As the Infiniti Director of Performance, Vettel grabbed the keys to an Infiniti Q50 Hybrid to be the first person ever to put a full lap on the newly laid asphalt.
Sebastian Vettel drives the Infiniti Q50 at the all-new Sochi Autodrom 1 photo
Photo: Infiniti
Built at the former Olympic venue, the Sochi Autodrom features 18 turns and 3.6 miles (5.8 km) of track, and it only uses slightly more than a mile of public roads for the racing circuit. As displayed in the video, the track should offer a good amount of high-speed areas and plenty of challenging cornering areas. Some of the more interesting elements of the track include the signature long sweeping left-hander that almost completely encircles the Olympic Park and the tight right-hander coming off the high-speed back stretch.

"It is great to be back in Sochi, and the venue has been transformed since I was last here when it was really just a construction site. Having driven the full circuit for the first time in the Infiniti Q50 today, it's an interesting layout with a good mix of high-speed corners and technical sections. It's going to be a huge challenge in a Formula One car for sure, and I'm really looking forward to coming back in October," said Vettel.

Lucky VIP guests and members of the media were also on hand to get hot laps in the Q50 Hybrid driven by Vettel and the man he replaced at Red Bull Racing, former F1 driver David Coulthard. The inaugural Russian Grand Prix takes place on October 12th and should it should be a great venue to provide exciting racing for fans.

In addition to the laps around the paved track, Infiniti also provided some previous footage of Vettel testing out the track before it was completed.

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